Who IS McNasty?

John McCain has enlisted The Decider's Rovian operatives to run his campaign.... the very ones who slimed McCain and his family in the 2000 GOP primaries. The very ones who Swiftboated another war hero, John Kerry, in the 2004 campaign. Now in McCain's name, these very same operatives savagely and deceptively attack Barack Obama's character in this one.

George W. Bush's toxic influence has finally managed to destroy not just the economy and our moral standing in the world.... it has now infected the tone and substance of McCain's 2008 campaign.

McCain has repeatedly retooled his message and campaign staff in his effort to corner his fatal-obsession need to be president and commander-in-chief. But, as Fred Hiatt suggests today in "What McCain Hasn't Tried".... (WaPo) "imagine if McCain had selected for his running mate not a partisan attack dog but someone with deep knowledge of the economy and a record of reaching across the aisle.

Imagine if McCain had taken the campaign high-road. "Imagine if McCain himself had decided to respond to this crisis as an American first, a candidate second." But the reality is far different. As McCain was speaking at a campaign rally in Minnesota, after having to correct a supporter's assertion that Obama is an "Arab," McCain's "campaign ads were calling Obama a liar."

Even William Kristol in his op-ed today pleads with McCain, "Fire the Campaign." (NYTimes) He counsels that McCain "has nothing to lose. His campaign is totally overmatched by Obama’s. The Obama team is well organized, flush with resources, and the candidate and the campaign are in sync. The McCain campaign, once merely problematic, is now close to being out-and-out dysfunctional. Its combination of strategic incoherence and operational incompetence has become toxic. If the race continues over the next three weeks to be a conventional one, McCain is doomed."

Kristol, an early diehard McCain supporter, continues, "What McCain needs to do is junk the whole thing and start over. Shut down the rapid responses, end the frantic e-mails, bench the spinning surrogates, stop putting up new TV and Internet ads every minute. In fact, pull all the ads — they’re doing no good anyway. Use that money for televised town halls and half-hour addresses in prime time."

All of McCain's frantic low-road tactics and Kristol's suggested "junk the whole thing" Hail-Marying raise worrying questions. If McCain can't run a successful presidential campaign, how can he run a country in financial peril bordering on insolvency, embroiled in two wars with rising unemployment and international relationships on the ropes?

And most worrying.... if McCain can dump his moral code and morph into Bush to further his political ambitions, just who is John McCain?

November 4.

Hillary... Annie or Teresa?

Hillary Clinton didn't suspend her attack on Barack Obama, even at the nationally televised forum on religious and moral values last night.... "Obama Reinforcing Stereotypes, Clinton Asserts." (WaPo)

Hillary, the first to appear in separate 45-minute sessions answering questions from journalists and the audience, was quick to label Obama's recent description of small-town America.... where voters are bitter and cling to guns and religion, disillusioned by hard economic times and politicians who promise much but deliver little.... as reinforcing the stereotype of "out of touch" Democrats.

Comparing Obama to the failed Democratic presidential nominees Al Gore and John Kerry, Hillary asserted that "large segments of the electorate concluded that they did not really understand or relate to or frankly respect their ways of life" and again charged Obama as being "elitist.... and frankly patronizing."

Speaking of patronizing.... switching from her recent persona of a duck-hunting, shot-belting Annie Oakley to Mother Teresa when queried on religious subjects, Hillary's eyes-imploring-heaven, breathy replies to religious questions sounded contrived.

Rather than appearing as a Mother Teresa, Hillary, in her flared gold jacket and enveloping gold scarf, managed a closer likeness to a Buddha bobblehead.

Obama by contrast spoke thoughtfully.... without theatrical affectation.... in measured tones emphasizing his experience as a community organizer with Chicago churches, assisting workers of a steel plant that had just closed.

He walked "the uplifting peoples lives" walk. Answering the "elitist" charge, he said: "Religion is a bulwark, a foundation when other things aren't going well.... That's true in my own life.... what I was referring to was in no way demeaning a faith that I, myself, embrace."

Responding to Hillary's jab on the failed 2000 Democratic presidential campaign Obama noted, "By the way, I have to say, I think Al Gore won."

Tired of her relentless and reckless barrage of personal attacks, Obama commented to a working-class crowd at a union hall shortly before the forum that he expected such attacks from the Republican John McCain, but not a fellow Democrat.

"Shame on her. She knows better.... She's talking like she's Annie Oakley.... Hillary Clinton is out there like she's in the duck blind every Sunday," mocked Obama who laughed "She's packing a six-shooter.... That's some politics being played."

In the forum, Clinton declined repeatedly to describe her personal faith, instead falling back on "the way I was raised," implying it's too private a matter. However, earlier in the day, the opportunely-pious Hillary seemed frustrated when asked when she had last attended church or fired a gun.

"That is not a relevant question for this debate," Clinton said. "We can answer that some other time. I went to church on Easter.... "

But she shot the Easter bunny first.